Part of an article from today....Like him, I hope the secularists in America do not push for such...sad days for Christians. The sufferings of Christ are still, as St. Paul writes, carried out in His People.

North Korea: According to reporting by ForeignPolicy.com, that feisty little country does not permit the celebration of Christmas, and anyone caught worshiping Jesus can be tortured or executed. Sounds like Rhode Island. Right now, there are about 70,000 Christians in North Korean labor camps decking the halls with rocks and concrete 10 hours a day.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, even threatened "unexpected consequences" if the South Korean government allowed lights on trees within view of the border. Kim calls that a provocation and a mean form of "psychological warfare."

Saudi Arabia: All non-Muslim religious activities are banned in public, so unless Santa puts a prayer rug in his sleigh and heads directly for Mecca, he is persona non grata in this nation. The Saudis even have a religious police force that runs around checking to see who has been naughty and nice in the Islamic context.

According to ForeignPolicy, several dozen Christmas trees imported from Holland were seized by Saudi authorities, hacked to pieces and sent back to the Netherlands. So there. No Christmas for you!

Cuba: Fidel Castro banned the holiday in 1969 saying Cubans were needed to harvest sugar cane on December 25, and don't even think about Christmas dinner. That ban lasted three decades until the Pope told Comrade Fidel to knock it off. Most Cubans are Catholic and didn't really appreciate the government calling Santa a symbol of "consumerism" and "mental colonization."

A popular textbook used by institutions and teachers to teach English as a second language to students in the UK has been found to have a serious anti-Israel bias.

"I teach English as a foreign language in a further education college in Nottingham, England. I came across the attached map and couldn't believe my eyes!" Liz Wiseman told Israel Today.

The textbook in question is "Skills in English Writing Level 1", which includes a map of the Middle East on which Israel is nowhere to be found.

While Wiseman acknowledges she was not obligated to use this particular textbook, it is one of the more popular and mainstream English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks published by one of the more popular and mainstream ELT publishers, Garnet Education.

Garnet Education bills itself thus:

"Garnet Education is an independent English Language Teaching (ELT) publisher, specialising in English for Academic Purposes. We produce award-winning ELT books, multimedia resources and tests for students of all ages, from kindergarten to university."

This is far from an isolated incident, which is motivation for drawing attention to this particular case. It is not only in the Middle East where students, both adults and children, are being taught that Israel has no right to exist. The more students around the world are fed this brand of propaganda, the more remote prospects for true peace become.

An island nation has a geographical and demographical advantage over other nations. Malta had this advantage and so did Great Britain, but sadly both nations have squandered this natural defense. Many tourists I have talked with this past week, Maltese who use to visit England, lament the fact that London is not English and that England is more and more just one international EU country among many.

This state of the diluting of a particular culture seems to be true of Ireland, and to me, Malta.
In Eire, most of my friends are neither from North Ireland or Eire, but Polish, Asian, Scottish. In England, the majority of daily Mass goers in my parish, are either Filipino or African. At least at Mass in Malta, the vast majority of attenders are Maltese, of a certain age.
Most of the African immigrants here are Muslim.
That the Church is universal is part of Her Beauty and strength. Christendom was an attempt to have a united Christian national identity under agreements between monarchs. These failed.

But, I am lamenting the passing of English, Irish and, soon, Maltese cultures.
There are few children to whom to pass on these distinctive cultures, and EU social engineering provides the atmosphere for nation-state suicide.

Many Catholics in America and Europe do not want to get involved in politics. Part of it is the brain-drain in Europe to the States, and part of it could be that many brilliant minds and leaders have been aborted. We are having a crisis in Catholic leadership.

Young people want to make money and not serve. The ideal of civil service is gone. The same ideals which make a young man or woman look towards the religious life, are the same lofty, nobles principals of those going into politics--in the old days.

Recently, I have discovered a great saint, Vincent Pallotti. There is an excellent mine-biography online and here is the link. I think we should pray to him for Catholic politicians who are not tainted with Masonry or liberalism. He fought against these things in his amazing work.

Here is one section from this small biography online. St. Vincent, pray for us.

The very spirit of madness that led to the French Revolution (1789) had spread beyond the bounds of France into the heart of the Catholic world. Italian radicals wanted to create a “unified Italy,” fusing the various smaller kingdoms into a modern liberal republic. There was one major problem, however: that vast chunk of land in the center of Italy known as the Papal States, a sovereign nation with the Pope as its monarch. Gregory XVI had held on tenaciously to the Papal States. This last “Monk-Pope” stridently resisted the spirit of Freemasonry and the doctrinal indifferentism that accompanied it. But his successor was known to be a liberal in political matters, and conservatives in Europe — Don Vincenzo included — quaked when this “compromise” Cardinal was elected.38

Don Vincenzo appealed to the Roman populace to pray so that a public chastisement would be avoided. But God was not satisfied and His wrath flowed over. The year 1847 was one full of imprudent political capitulations on the part of Pius IX. The radicals thought that they could get their way with him, and in certain instances, he proved them right. “Death to the Jesuits” became a rabble-chant in the Roman streets in early 1848. The Society of Jesus was seen as the friend of Gregory XVI and Austria, and the enemy of Italy and “the people.” On March 28, Pius disbanded the Society in the Papal States and some feared another suppression as had happened under Clement XIV. During this time, the liberal thugs around the Pope forbade Vincent to get to the Roman Pontiff.

The Propaganda Fide College, run by the now disbanded Jesuits, sought help from St. Vincent by asking for Don Melia to return to his former post as vice-Rector. (He had returned to Rome to make plans for expansion of the London mission.) Vincent agreed, and the Propaganda Fide College remained in operation, thanks to the U.S. consul, who allowed the Stars and Stripes to fly over the seminary, signaling a “hands-off” to the revolutionaries.

On July 25, 1848, the Austrians defeated the Piedmontese, who were fighting with them over the Tyrol. This was a hindrance to the revolution; but it also added fuel to its propaganda machine, which tried to force Pius into a war with Austria. The Pontiff refused.

On November 14, Father de Geslin acted as faithful imitator of his master by helping a dying impenitent man return to the grace of God. The man, Gasparo Lunati, had been in the Carbonari, and confessed that he was part of a plot to kill Pius IX’s secretary of state, Pelligrino Rossi. Lunati made it clear that Geslin could use this information outside of the confessional. The French priest immediately notified Vincent, who had several people warn Rossi, but to no avail. Rossi went ahead with the public appointment he was forewarned would be his death. True to Lunati’s words, an assassin came out of the crowd and plunged a dagger into the Papal secretary of state, killing him.

In the ensuing chaos, the “Republic of Rome” was declared. The Pope was forced to flee to Naples, where he took refuge in Gaeta, thanks to the French and Bavarian emissaries and the hospitable King Ferdinand II of Naples. Vincenzo’s work in the military hospital was called to a halt by the tyrannical rulers and the brave Don Vaccari (less well known than his rector) disguised himself as a doctor to visit the patients. It was no longer safe for Don Vincenzo to show himself publicly. Twice, attempts were made on his life.

The revolutionaries, who barged into monasteries and rectories unannounced, were confiscating Church property. It was therefore decided to send Don Melia back to London, and disperse the other brethren throughout the city, leaving only de Geslin in San Salvatore. His French citizenship and accent would protect him. Don Vincenzo himself took up residence in the Irish College, whose seminarians and faculty were grateful to have a saint in their midst. Both Don Melia and Bishop Wiseman invited Vincenzo to England for his own safety, as well as to aid the London mission, but Vincent refused. While in the Irish College, he took advantage of his retreat to write God the Infinite Love , a book of meditations, much resembling the devotional books of St. Alphonsus de Liguori.

The French, Neapolitans, Austrians, and Spanish finally came to the rescue of the Pope. General Oudinot fought Garabaldi and Mazzini, whose minions were turning Rome into a war zone and a brothel at the same time. Oudinot fought successfully, and, on July fourteenth, the General declared the restoration of Pius IX’s secular rule.39 The Pope, however, did not return until April of 1850. When he did, it was “no more Mister Nice Guy.” It was then that the archconservative Pius IX of the Syllabus of Errors, Vatican I and papal authority was formed. In large part, Pallotti was blamed for this change.

To give just a small idea of the bestial anti-Catholic nature of this Masonic revolution, we present one fact: The monastery of San Callisto, turned into a prison during the revolution, revealed the mangled bodies of ninety murdered, tortured priests, all killed in the name of modern “liberty.”

Leon Bloy

Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma

The Church Must Not Be Defensive

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Too many Church leaders do not think, or do not think as Catholics

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GUILD PRAYER

God our Father, source of life and freedom, through Your Holy Spirit you gave the Carmelite, Titus Brandsma the courage to affirm human dignity even in the midst of suffering and degrading persecution.

Grant us that same spirit so that, in refusing all compromise with error we may always and everywhere give coherent witness to Your abiding presence among us.